Groups

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Meg Little, (202) 572-3387, mlittle@environmentaldefense.org
Andy Darrell, (212) 616-1206, adarrell@environmentaldefense.org

(New York, NY - December 12, 2006) Environmental Defense applauded Mayor Bloomberg for announcing ambitious goals today to bring New York City the cleanest air of any major US city and cut climate emissions economy-wide by 30% by 2030. The organization said that the only way to achieve these goals is to move forward with new initiatives such as congestion pricing and other common-sense measures to reduce tailpipe pollution in city neighborhoods.  

“We applaud Mayor Bloomberg’s goals to make them a reality, but city officials in all five boroughs must take a hard look at solutions like congestion pricing that can bring traffic levels down citywide and help finance the innovative forms of transit we need to connect people in underserved communities to good jobs,” said Andy Darrell, New York Regional Director for Environmental Defense. “Emissions from transportation are the region’s fastest-growing source of greenhouse gases, and recent science tells us that local exposures to tailpipe pollution is extraordinarily important to reducing human exposure to pollutants linked to asthma, cancer and heart disease.”  

“New York can bring together economic performance, healthy communities and global leadership to solve climate change if it’s willing to address the fact that it will have a million more people in the city by 2030, which will make traffic congestion every day look like the Friday before Labor Day unless we build performance incentives into the transportation system citywide,” added Darrell. “The fumes from those cars and trucks will make asthma-triggering pollution commonplace.”  

“London already has used congestion pricing to reduce traffic congestion by 30% and pollution by 12-20%,” concluded Darrell. “If London can do it, there’s no reason why New York - the greatest city in the world - can’t do it.”